DOES ANYONE REMEMBER any such moral outrage at the killings of Asian
Americans during the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles as there is now about
the murder of gay Matthew Shepard or the murder of the abortion doctor
Barnett Slepian? Moral outrage is one of the essential ingredients of a
civilized society, but we have become dangerously selective -- and
politically correct -- about what outrages us.

Even a President of the United States, George Bush, referred to the Rodney
King riots by the romantic name "uprising." It was the culmination of a long
trend toward accepting -- or at least "understanding" -- politically correct
violence.

When environmentalists booby-trapped trees, so that loggers and sawmill
workers risked injury and death when these trees were cut down or cut into
lumber, there was no moral outrage. Indeed, a book showing how to use these
booby traps was publicized on "public television."

When a 23-year old sawmill worker had his face torn up by one of these
booby traps, few people even commented, much less objected. This column was
one of the few that did. It warned: "The idea that zealots who wrap
themselves in a moral banner are somehow exempt from the rules has been
growing -- like a cancer ... It is only a matter of time before other
zealots for other causes do the same."

That was 11 years ago. Since then, we have had some people on the fringes
of the political right doing what those on the political left had been doing
for years. Anti-abortion violence or anti-homosexual violence is now
suddenly seen as wrong by those who turned a blind eye to politically
correct violence against others.

If we ever allow morality or law to become just a question of whose ox is
gored, then we will have taken a fatal step toward national suicide. We can
survive lapses into hypocrisy, but we cannot survive making hypocrisy a
ruling principle.

Hypocrisy as a principle leaves no common moral ground and no mutually
acceptable framework of law, within which inevitable human differences can
be worked out peacefully. All that this leaves us are tests of strength in
the streets or assassinations from the shadows.

Unfortunately, there are too many groups or movements for whom morality is
defined by what advances their cause. Some of these groups and movements are
on the fringes of the political right, but more are on the political left ---
and moving dangerously close to the mainstream of the left.

Double standards of what is permissible speech have become the norm on
leading college and university campuses from coast to coast. Any passing
remark that can be twisted to seem racist or sexist brings the full weight
of the institution down on whoever said it. But the most vile anti-Semitism
is not only allowed to be expressed, but is even subsidized by colleges and
universities that invite and pay black militant extremist speakers with a
record of inflammatory anti-Semitic rhetoric.

We are also seeing a widespread demonstration of moral double standards in
reactions to the current impeachment crisis. Anyone playing any role in
bringing out facts that reveal the perjury of the president is condemned
fiercely by those who want to be "non-judgmental" toward the man who
committed the acts and the perjury about them.

No one who has been instrumental in bringing out the truth about Clinton
has escaped political and media wrath or the personal demonization that has
become standard procedure since the character assassinations against Robert
Bork, Clarence Thomas and now Kenneth Starr. Those who repeatedly lied and
covered up for Clinton are barely regretted, much less condemned.

Women who are now coming forward to tell of threats against themselves or
their children if they revealed Clinton's sexual harassment of them are
greeted with a yawn. Never mind that the Linda Tripp tapes show Monica
Lewinsky warning Ms. Tripp about her vulnerability and that of her children
if she doesn't go along with the perjury that Clinton and Lewinsky were
planning.

For too many people, everything has become a matter of whose side you are
on politically and whose ox is gored. Fortunately, those people are not yet
a majority. But the bad news is that they have been remarkably successful in
deceiving and manipulating the
majority.